The present invention relates to a body structure of a vehicle, and particularly relates to a side body structure of a vehicle in a connecting part between a hinge pillar and a side sill, and a part therearound.
Generally, when a vehicle experiences a frontal collision, a pair of left and right front-side frames provided in a front part of the vehicle and extending in vehicle longitudinal directions, crashes and absorbs the impact load, and via the front side frames, distributes the impact load to various vehicle parts, in order to reduce cabin deformation.
When a so-called small overlap collision where the vehicle overlaps with a collision object at an outer side of the front side frame in vehicle width directions occurs, a front wheel in the overlapped area may move rearwardly (retreat) with respect to the vehicle body and the impact load may be applied to a hinge pillar from the front wheel.
The applied impact load is distributed rearwardly via structures, such as a side sill extending rearwardly from a lower end of the hinge pillar, a front pillar extending upwardly and rearwardly from an upper end of the hinge pillar, and an impact bar of a front door. The distribution of the load from the hinge pillar to various parts on the rear side reduces the cabin deformation caused by the retreating of the hinge pillar and a dashboard.
Generally, the hinge pillar includes a pair of inner and outer hinge pillar members joined together by welding a pair of front and rear flanges thereof. A closed section space is continuously formed extending vertically between the inner and outer hinge pillar members, and thus, a suitable load transmission occurs between the lower end and the upper end of the hinge pillar.
Further the side sill includes a pair of inner and outer side sill members joined together by welding a pair of upper and lower flanges thereof. A closed section space is continuously formed extending in the vehicle longitudinal directions between the inner and outer side sill members, and thus, the load is suitably transmitted rearward by the side sill.
A front end part of the outer side sill member projecting forwardly of a rear edge of the hinge pillar may be disposed inside a connecting part between the hinge pillar and the side sill. In this case, the projecting part of the outer side sill member cannot form a closed section space because the welding of the upper flange of the outer side sill member becomes difficult, and the closed section space may only be formed on the rear side of the hinge pillar.
When such a vehicle with the side body structure experiences the small overlap collision, the outer side sill member applied with the impact load from the front side easily bends in the front end part with no closed section space, and thus, the effective rearward load distribution cannot be achieved via the side sill.
Regarding this inconvenience, JP2013-159290A discloses a structure in which an inner reinforcing member extending in vehicle longitudinal directions is disposed inside a connecting part between a lower end part of a hinge pillar and a front end part of a side sill, and a second closed section space smaller than a closed section space of the side sill itself is continuously formed extending in the vehicle longitudinal directions between the inner reinforcing member and an inner wall of the connecting part.
The formation of the second closed section space on the front side of a rear edge of the hinge pillar allows an impact load applied to the hinge pillar from the front side to be transmitted to the closed section space of the side sill formed on the rear side of the hinge pillar, via the second closed section space.
Recently, as countermeasures against the small overlap collision, vehicle body structures for facilitating the retreating of a front wheel while sliding outwardly in vehicle width directions are discussed or put in use, in order to reduce a frontal impact load applied from a collision object to a hinge pillar via the front wheel.
When the small overlap collision occurs to a vehicle with such a body structure, a frontal impact load is still applied to the hinge pillar from the collision object via the obliquely outwardly retreated front wheel.
When the front wheel retreats obliquely outwardly as described above, a front-wheel-side suspension member coupled to the front wheel and extending vertically retreats obliquely outwardly along with the front wheel while falling down, and is disengaged from a vehicle-body-side suspension member during the retreating process.
Additionally, if a tire of the front wheel sandwiched by the hinge pillar and the collision object becomes flat, the front-wheel-side suspension member which continues to retreat obliquely outwardly comes into contact with the hinge pillar, and thus another collision occurs between the collision object and the hinge pillar via the suspension member.
In such a collision mode, the retreating suspension member comes into contact with the hinge pillar at an outwardly offset position with respect to a center of the hinge pillar in the vehicle width directions, and the impact load may be applied to the hinge pillar at this position.
In terms of developments in vehicle body structures, there still is room for improvement in rearwardly distributing a load more stably even in the collision mode as described above.